Distress
by NoZones
Summary: The girls learn, the hard way, not to take a certain convenience for granted.
1. Chapter 1

Tomo and Yomi arrived in class together.

"I win!" Tomo said.

"What do you mean?"

"I got in first, so I win!"

"Tomo, we weren't racing."

"So? I still win!"

Yomi got sick of this, so she went and took her seat. She noticed Osaka holding an empty bottle.

"I'm disappointed," Osaka said. "This bottle had 'sweat' on the label, but it tasted like regular water."

"Why would they bottle actual sweat?" replied Yomi. Still, she thought people learned English to prevent that sort of thing from happening.

"So I got a second bottle - this one - and there was no sweat in here either. I'm kinda mad, really."

"You drank two whole bottles of water?" Even now, Yomi still managed to be surprised at her classmates' behavior.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Tomo added. "I also decided to do some major hydrating. Yep, two bottles!"

"In case you two don't remember," Yomi commented, "that's all going to have to come out eventually."

"Give us some credit, Yomi," said Osaka. "When we gotta go, we'll just ask Miss Yukari."

"Whatever. Just don't whine to me if this goes wrong." Yomi looked around. "Hey, where's Chiyo-chan?"

"We talked this morning. She's sick and can't come in."

"That's too bad. I'll be sure to take notes for her. So no distractions today, please."

"Huh?" said Tomo. "Okay, sure. I wonder what's taking Miss Yukari so long."

"I bet she's going to the bathroom," said Osaka. "There's just something relaxing about a lesiurely bathroom break."

"Okay, even for me that's too much."

Just then Kagura walked in. "Good, I made it!" she said as she was sitting down. "Man, what I wouldn't have given for an outhouse near the main entrance. I would've gone before class, but I didn't want to risk being late."

"What is it suddenly with the bathroom talk?" Yomi said.

"Blame Thomas Crapper," said Tomo.

"Thomas Crapper didn't invent the toilet," said Osaka.

"Are you sure?"

Just then, Yukari finally showed up.

"Miss Yukari!" said Kagura. "May I be excused to use the bathroom?"

Osaka's two bottles of water had caught up to her. "I also need to use the bathroom," she said.

"Me too!" said Tomo.

"After hearing all that bathroom talk," said Yomi, "now I have to go."

"You four stay seated," said Yukari. "The women's bathrooms are all out of order. And you're not going to use any of the men's rooms either."

"What do I do then?" whined Tomo.

"I don't know. Think dry thoughts, or something."

This was going to be a long day...


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a little while since they got the bad news. The boys were still able to use the men's room, but took care not to call attention to what they were doing. Not that this made any difference to the girls.

At first Tomo took Yukari's sarcastic advice to "think dry thoughts". Every time she tried to imagine a desert, though, it always ended with her seeing an oasis. She finally gave up that.

"Hey, Tomo!" said Yomi. "Could you stop moving around like that?"

"I can't help it!" replied Tomo. Indeed, her discomfort left her unable to hold still.

"Once, my parents and I were on a road trip," said Osaka, who decided to help out. "I had to go then, and we were a ways off from any bathrooms."

"Well? What did you do?"

"I just tried not to notice the stream we were driving along."

"Stream?"

"Yeah, and it was a neverending flow. All that water, constantly being pushed forward-"

"Osaka, could you stop?" said Yomi. "You're not helping!"

"Yeah, that's why I tried to ignore the stream," said Osaka.

"Why even bring it up then?"

"Also, you shouldn't think about waterfalls either."

"Osaka!"

"Oh, right. Sorry."

Kagura kicked herself for not going to the bathroom before leaving home. Now she really would give just about anything for an outhouse. By now, she'd lost track of exactly how long she'd been keeping her legs crossed. She had no idea how this would affect PE class. She found herself thinking someone might end up going in the pool. She vowed, though, not to be one of them.

Yukari wasn't having that much fun either. She showed up late to class partly because she'd been looking for a bathroom she could use. To her dismay, she ultimately struck out. She did her best to hide her discomfort from the students, but really it was all she could do not to run out, get into her car and rush home. Her only consolation was imagining how bad it might be for Nyamo.

Meanwhile, in Kimura's class, Kaori was miserable. Not only was her bladder starting to hurt, but she just couldn't shake the feeling the Kimura was staring at her. Given the situation, she was even more disturbed than usual. No, she reassured herself, he wasn't that kind of person. She then turned her thoughts to how Chihiro was doing. Not a day went by without her wishing she was still in the same classroom as Sakaki.

Back in Yukari's class, Osaka was doing all she could not to think about how bad she had to go. She looked out a window, only to see Chiyo's father. Just then, she realized how lucky Chiyo was for not coming to school. She continued watching Chiyo's father floating over the lawn. He suddenly came to a stop near some flowers. He then pulled out a sprinkler and began watering the plants.

Osaka looked away immediately. She now seriously regretted drinking all that water. She realized it should've been obvious that the "sweat" label shouldn't be taken literally.


	3. Chapter 3

It was now shortly before school would get out. It was wisely decided to let all the girls leave right away, while the boys took care of cleaning.

This couldn't come too soon for Tomo.

"Oh man, I can't take it anymore!" Tomo said. "When can I go?"

"Do you mind?" said Yomi, who was beginning to get seriously annoyed with Tomo.

"I'm serious, I feel like I'm going to explode."

"You think you're the only one?" said Yukari, who was nearing her limit.

Kagura, for her part, planned to run home as soon as she got the chance. This had certainly been one of her worse days. They didn't have swimming today, no doubt to avoid the "going in the pool" scenario she'd thought of earlier.

Finally, school ended for the day. The girls proceeded to make a less-than-orderly exit as each one was anxious to get home and relieve herself.

Tomo ran like a woman possessed, rushing out the front door, through the school gates, and along the sidewalk and she tried to get home as soon as possible. Even then, it seemed to take forever. In the end, she reached her home, got inside and ran into the bathroom with hardly any time to spare.

Later that evening, she called Yomi.

"Well, that wasn't much fun," she said.

"You didn't help any," Yomi replied.

"I didn't do it on purpose."

"Besides, it was your own fault for overdoing it with the water."

"Hey, at least we both made it home in time."

"Well, if there were any 'accidents' we probably won't be hearing about it."

The next day, Kagura got up and got ready for school. Remembering what happened the previous day, she did her business before leaving. She showed up in class and saw Osaka and Tomo talking about something.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with yesterday, would it?" Kagura said.

"Yeah," Tomo said. "I told my dad, and he just about flipped his lid."

"So did my parents," said Osaka. "They used all sorts of dirty words, such as-"

"Thanks," said Kagura, "but I get the idea."

Meanwhile, Kimura was thinking about the earlier day, and how bad he felt for all those girls. Fortunately, the women's bathrooms were all fixed, so this wouldn't happen today.

Just then, he needed to relieve himself. He went down the hall and found the nearest men's room. He was unpleasantly surprised to find an "out of order" sign.

"Oh no!" he said.

THE END


End file.
